--- a/longdesc1/longdesc.html Sat Apr 20 11:24:38 2013 +0200
+++ b/longdesc1/longdesc.html Thu May 02 21:27:00 2013 +0200
@@ -21,9 +21,7 @@
used in this specification are defined in<cite><a class="bibref" href="#bib-DOM4"></a></cite>
[<cite><a class="bibref" href="#bib-HTML5">HTML5</a></cite>]<cite><a class="bibref"
href="#bib-XML10"></a></cite>.</p>
<p>This document does not define the term "accessible" nor
accessibility, but uses them with the sense they have in [<a href="file:///Users/chaals/Documents/w3c/html-proposals/longdesc1/longdesc.html#bib-WCAG">WCAG</a>]</p>
</section>
</section>
<section id="UCnR">
<h2><span class="secno">2. </span>Use Cases and Requirements</h2>
<p>There are many ways users can successfully interact with content even
if they cannot see, or see well, images included in that content. The <code>alt</code>
attribute is designed to ensure that for everyday work, a user has
enough information to replace an image, and often this is more helpful
than a detailed description of every image. The <code>longdesc</code>
attribute is designed to complement this functionality, to meet the
following use cases.<br>
</p>
<h3>Use Cases</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Identifying a well-known image</dt>
</dl>
<dl>
<dd>There are many well-known images which are widely reproduced and
well known. In some cases, such as "Mona Lisa", "Gerníka", Cubbin's
"Lost", Leunig's "ramming the shears", the most effective way to refer
identify an image to another person is by the creator, title, and
similar information that would be found in a catalogue. But different
people know the images by different titles, and some images have no
widely known titles. Identifying an image is often an important part
of framing a discussion. Where the image itself cannot be seen, a
description can often be used to offer easier recognition than the
cataloguing information, for example "Washington crossing some river,
standing heroically in the boat, while soldiers do the hard work", or
"the Da Vinci picture of the guy in a square and a circle".</dd>
<dd><em>Requires</em>: Discoverability</dd>
<dd><em>Helped by</em>: Inline, Reuse</dd>
<dt>Describing a complex diagram</dt>
<dd>In many environments diagrams are used to explain a concept or
transmit information efficiently. Where a user has a reduced ability
to see the image (poor contrast vision and other conditions are as
relevant here as a complete lack of vision), a description can enable
that user to understand the information being presented</dd>
<dd><em>Requires</em>: Structured Markup, Inline, Reuse, Simple Return</dd>
<dt>Teaching Accessible Development</dt>
<dd>In many environments producing content that is accessible to users
regardless of disability is a legal and/or market requirement. </dd>
<dd><em>Requires</em>: Maintenance, Backwards compatibility</dd>
<dt>A self-describing artistic work</dt>
<dd>For many pages the visual design of the page is an important part of
the message it conveys to a fully-sighted user, but the author would
like to convey as much of that design as possible to a user with low
or no vision available. </dd>
<dd><em>Requires</em>: No visual encumbrance, Structured Markup</dd>
<dd><em>Helped by</em>: Reuse, Simple Return</dd>
<dt>Referring to an existing description</dt>
<dd>Many well-known images are already described by other sources. The
copyright on those sources may not be compatible with re-publishing
the description, but there is little value in making a new one. </dd>
<dd><em>Requires</em>: Reuse, Structured Markup, Simple Return, Optional
Consumption<br>
</dd>
<dd><em>Helped by</em>: No Visual Encumbrance</dd>
<dt>Linking to a description included within a page</dt>
<dd>In some cases an image already has a description included within a
page. Making the linkage explicit can provide further clarity for a
user navigating the page who is not able to interpret the default
layout, e.g. because they have forced a re-layout of the page
elements, or because they do not see the default visual relationship
between the element and its description.</dd>
<dd>This practice also enables description to be provided for all users.</dd>
<dd>By keeping the association clear the content maintainer can more
easily check that the description and link are actually correct.</dd>
<dd><em>Requires</em>: Inline, Simple Return, Structured Markup,
Optional Consumption<br>
</dd>
</dl>
<h3>Requirements for an Image Description functionality </h3>
<dl>
<dt>No visual encumbrance</dt>
<dd>It <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be possible to provide a
description for an image without any visual encumbrance on the page.</dd>
<dt>Structured Markup</dt>
<dd>It <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be possible to include rich markup
(e.g. HTML5) in the description of the image.</dd>
<dt>Inline</dt>
<dd>It <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be possible to associate a
description in the body of a page with an image in that page. </dd>
<dt>Reuse</dt>
<dd>It <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be possible to re-use a single
description for multiple occurrences of an image.</dd>
<dt>Maintenance</dt>
<dd>It <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be simple to maintain a library of
images and descriptions for dynamic assembly, or dis-assembly and
re-assembly, of content. </dd>
<dt>Discoverability </dt>
<dd class="rfc2119">It <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be simple for a
user agent to automatically discover a description provided for a
given image.</dd>
<dd>A user <em class="rfc2119">should</em> be able to determine that
there is a description available for a given image.<br>
</dd>
<dt>Optional consumption</dt>
<dd>A user <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be able to choose not to read
the long description of a given image.</dd>
<dt>Simple return</dt>
<dd>A user <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be able to return from the
description to the image. </dd>
<dt>Backwards Compatibility </dt>
<dd>It <em class="rfc2119">should</em> be possible to use existing
tools and techniques to associate an image with its description. </dd>
</dl>
</section>
<section id="longdesc">
<h2><span class="secno"></span>3. The <code>longdesc</code> attribute</h2>
<h3>3.0 Implementation</h3>
<h4>3.0.1 Authors and Conformance checkers</h4>
<section id="parsing">
<p class="rfc2119">Zero or one <code>longdesc</code> attributes <em class="rfc2119">may</em>
be added to any <code>img</code> element.</p>
<p>The <code>longdesc</code> attribute <em class="rfc2119">must</em>
contain a <a href="http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/urls.html#valid-url-potentially-surrounded-by-spaces">valid
non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces</a>. The URL is a <a
href="http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/links.html#hyperlink">hyperlink</a>
to a description of the image that its parent <code>img</code>
element represents. </p>
<p>The linked description <em class="rfc2119">should</em> be a broadly
accessible format. (For example, a link to another version of the
image is almost certainly not a useful description, and plain text is
an extremely limiting format).</p>
<div class="note">
<p><em>This section is informative</em></p>
<p>Best practices for checking descriptions of images are beyond the
scope of this document, but there are many resources available.
For further guidance tool developers can consult e.g. [<a href="#bib-ATAGB3">ATAGB3</a>].
<span class="issue">ISSUE: This doesn't seem a great reference - is
there anything better? This is tracked in <a href="https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=21501">bug
- 21501</a> and its dependent bugs.</span></p>
</div>
<h4>3.0.2 Authors</h4>
<p>Authors <em class="rfc2119">should</em> put descriptions within an
element which is the target of a fragment link (e.g. <code>longdesc="example.html#description"</code>)
if a description is only part of the target document. </p>
<div class="note">
<p><em>This section is informative</em></p>
<p>Best practices for full descriptions of images are beyond the scope
of this document, but there are many resources available.</p>
<p>This document does not define the term "accessible" nor
accessibility. For further guidance on making an accessible
document, authors can consult e.g. [<a href="#bib-WCAG2">WCAG</a>].</p>
</div>
<h4>3.0.3 User Agents</h4>
<p>User agents <em class="rfc2119">must</em> make the link available to
all users through the regular user interface(s). <span class="issue">ISSUE:
- There are some cases where this may not make sense. Is it better for
the requirement to include explicit exceptions, or to keep it a
should. This is tracked in <a href="https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=21566">bug
- 21566</a> and its dependent bugs.</span> </p>
<p>User agents <em class="rfc2119">should</em> expose the link to
relevant APIs, especially accessibility-oriented APIs.<br>
</p>
<p>User agents <em class="rfc2119">should</em> enable users to discover
when images in a page contain a long description.</p>
<div class="note">
<p><em>This section is informative</em></p>
<p>Complete documentation of best practices for implementation is
beyond the scope of this document. However the following notes are
offered to help repair a common authoring mistake and avoid a common
user agent mistake.</p>
<p>One of the most common mistakes authors make that is easily
repaired by user agents is to use a description, instead of a URL
that links to a description. This means there is often plain text
description in the content of an invalid longdesc attribute.
Converting such attributes to data URLs is a simple repair strategy
that can help recover from cases where authors have made this
mistake. </p>
<p>Since some images with long description are also normal link
content, it is important for implementations to ensure that users
can activate both behaviours. Likewise, it is generally helpful when
the behaviour for finding, reading, and returning from a long
description to the image described is a consistent experience.</p>
<p>Obviously, it is important that access to the long description is
accessible to users. Further information on how to do this can be
found in [<a href="#bib-UAAG">UAAG</a>].</p>
</div>
</section>
<section id="extensions-to-the-element-interface">
<h3><span class="secno">3.1 </span>Extension to the <code><a title="element"
class="externalDFN"
data-spec="HTML5">HTMLImageElement</a></code>
interface</h3>
<pre class="idl"><span class="idlInterface" id="idl-def-Element">partial interface <span
class="idlInterfaceID">HTMLImageElement</span> {
<span class="idlAttribute"> attribute <span class="idlAttrType"><a>DOMString</a></span> <span
class="idlAttrName"><a
href="#widl-Element-longdesc">longdesc</a></span>;</span>
};</span></pre>
<section id="attributes">
<h4><span class="secno">3.1.1 </span>Attribute</h4>
<dl class="attributes">
<dt id="widl-Element-longdesc"><code>longdesc</code> of type <span
class="idlAttrType"><a>DOMString</a></span></dt>
<dd>
<p class="rfc2119">The <dfn id="dfn-dom-element-longdesc"><code>longdesc</code></dfn>
IDL attribute <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be a valid
non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces. It represents a
hyperlink to a detailed description of the image its parent <code><a
title="element"
class="externalDFN"
data-spec="DOM4">HTMLImageElement</a></code>
represents.</p>
</dd>
<dd>
<p>The <code>longdesc</code> IDL attribute <em class="rfc2119">must</em>
<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/infrastructure.html#reflect">reflect</a>
the HTML content attribute <code>longdesc</code>.<br>
</p>
</dd>
<dd>
<dl class="domintro">
<dt><var>image</var>.<code title="dom-Element-innerHTML">longdesc</code>
[ = <var>value</var> ] </dt>
<dd>
<p>Returns a DOMString that represents the attribute's
contents. </p>
<p>Can be set, to replace the contents of the attribute with
the given string.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
<pre class="example"><code>//Make the first internal longdesc reference absolute
var baseURL = document.location.origin + document.location.pathname
var someImage = document.querySelector('img[longdesc^=#]');
someImage.longdesc = baseURL + someImage.longdesc;</code></pre>
<pre class="example"><code>//Open new windows for each longdesc found
var describedImages = document.querySelectorAll('img[longdesc]');
for (i in describedImages) {
if (i.<strong>longdesc</strong>)
window.open(i.<strong>longdesc</strong>);
}</code></pre>
<pre class="example"><code>//Tries to repair errors where the longdesc isn't a URI
var describedImages = document.querySelectorAll('img[longdesc]');
for (i in describedImages) {
if (i.longdesc && !(validURL(i.longdesc)) { //assumes some URL validating function
var theData = encodeURIComponent(i.longdesc);
i.longdesc = "data:text/plain;charset=";
i.longdesc += document.charset;
i.longdesc += theData;
}
}</code></pre>
</section>
</section>
<section class="appendix" id="acknowledgements">
<h2><span class="secno">A. </span>Acknowledgements</h2>
<p>Thanks to the HTML Working group of the late 1990s for the original
specification of longdesc, to those who have implemented it in various
kinds of software, and to many many people involved with the
development of HTML5 (including but not limited to those who discussed
"ISSUE-30" in the HTML Working Group, the Protocols and Formats
Working Group, the W3C Advisory Board, and around countless dinner
tables, coffee breaks, and elsewhere) for the ideas, discussions and
contributions that led to the initial draft of this specification.
With the exception of Laura Carlson, who did far more very valuable
work than it took me to produce this specification, I haven't named
them: the list might be larger than the content of the specification.</p>
<p>For specific comments and suggestions that led to improvements over
successive drafts of this specification, thanks to the W3C's HTML
Accessibility Task Force, the W3C Internationalisation Working Group,
and to Jonathan Avila, Robin Berjon, James Craig, Steve Faulkner, John
Foliot, Geoff Freed, Richard Ishida, Anne van Kesteren, David
McDonald, Jay Munro, Leif Halvard Silli, Mathew Turvey and Boris
Zbarsky. Any errors are despite, not as a result of, their efforts.</p>
</section>
<section class="appendix" id="references">
<h2><span class="secno">B. </span>References</h2>
<section id="normative-references">
<h3><span class="secno">B.1 </span>Normative references</h3>
<dl class="bibliography">
<dt id="bib-HTML5">[HTML5]</dt>
<dd>Robin Berjon et. al., eds. <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5"><cite>HTML5.</cite></a>
W3C Working Draft. (Work in progress.) URL: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5">http://www.w3.org/TR/html5</a>
</dd>
<dt id="bib-RFC2119">[RFC2119]</dt>
<dd>S. Bradner. <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt"><cite>Key
+ 21501</a> and its dependent bugs.</span></p>
</div>
<h4>3.0.2 Authors</h4>
<p>Authors <em class="rfc2119">should</em> put descriptions within an
element which is the target of a fragment link (e.g. <code>longdesc="example.html#description"</code>)
if a description is only part of the target document. </p>
<div class="note">
<p><em>This section is informative</em></p>
<p>Best practices for full descriptions of images are beyond the scope
of this document, but there are many resources available.</p>
<p>This document does not define the term "accessible" nor
accessibility. For further guidance on making an accessible
document, authors can consult e.g. [<a href="#bib-WCAG2">WCAG</a>].</p>
</div>
<h4>3.0.3 User Agents</h4>
<p>If the <code>longdesc</code> value is a valid URI, User agents <em
class="rfc2119">must</em>
make the link available to all users through the regular user
interface(s). </p>
<p>If the <code>longdesc</code> value is a valid URI, User agents <em
class="rfc2119">must</em>
expose the link to relevant APIs, especially accessibility-oriented
APIs.<br>
</p>
<p>User agents <em class="rfc2119">should</em> enable users to discover
when images in a page contain a long description.</p>
<div class="note">
<p><em>This section is informative</em></p>
<p>Complete documentation of best practices for implementation is
beyond the scope of this document. However the following notes are
offered to help repair a common authoring mistake and avoid a common
user agent mistake.</p>
<p>One of the most common mistakes authors make that is easily
repaired by user agents is to use a description, instead of a URL
that links to a description. This means there is often plain text
description in the content of an invalid longdesc attribute.
Converting such attributes to data URLs is a simple repair strategy
that can help recover from cases where authors have made this
mistake. </p>
<p>Since some images with long description are also normal link
content, it is important for implementations to ensure that users
can activate both behaviours. Likewise, it is generally helpful when
the behaviour for finding, reading, and returning from a long
description to the image described is a consistent experience.</p>
<p>Obviously, it is important that access to the long description is
accessible to users. Further information on how to do this can be
found in [<a href="#bib-UAAG">UAAG</a>].</p>
</div>
</section>
<section id="extensions-to-the-element-interface">
<h3><span class="secno">3.1 </span>Extension to the <code><a title="element"
class="externalDFN"
data-spec="HTML5">HTMLImageElement</a></code>
interface</h3>
<pre class="idl"><span class="idlInterface" id="idl-def-Element">partial interface <span
class="idlInterfaceID">HTMLImageElement</span> {
<span class="idlAttribute"> attribute <span class="idlAttrType"><a>DOMString</a></span> <span
class="idlAttrName"><a
href="#widl-Element-longdesc">longdesc</a></span>;</span>
};</span></pre>
<section id="attributes">
<h4><span class="secno">3.1.1 </span>Attribute</h4>
<dl class="attributes">
<dt id="widl-Element-longdesc"><code>longdesc</code> of type <span
class="idlAttrType"><a>DOMString</a></span></dt>
<dd>
<p class="rfc2119">The <dfn id="dfn-dom-element-longdesc"><code>longdesc</code></dfn>
IDL attribute <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be a valid
non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces. It represents a
hyperlink to a detailed description of the image its parent <code><a
title="element"
class="externalDFN"
data-spec="DOM4">HTMLImageElement</a></code>
represents.</p>
</dd>
<dd>
<p>The <code>longdesc</code> IDL attribute <em class="rfc2119">must</em>
<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/infrastructure.html#reflect">reflect</a>
the HTML content attribute <code>longdesc</code>.<br>
</p>
</dd>
<dd>
<dl class="domintro">
<dt><var>image</var>.<code title="dom-Element-innerHTML">longdesc</code>
[ = <var>value</var> ] </dt>
<dd>
<p>Returns a DOMString that represents the attribute's
contents. </p>
<p>Can be set, to replace the contents of the attribute with
the given string.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
<pre class="example"><code>//Make the first internal longdesc reference absolute
var baseURL = document.location.origin + document.location.pathname
var someImage = document.querySelector('img[longdesc^=#]');
someImage.longdesc = baseURL + someImage.longdesc;</code></pre>
<pre class="example"><code>//Open new windows for each longdesc found
var describedImages = document.querySelectorAll('img[longdesc]');
for (i in describedImages) {
if (i.<strong>longdesc</strong>)
window.open(i.<strong>longdesc</strong>);
}</code></pre>
<pre class="example"><code>//Tries to repair errors where the longdesc isn't a URI
var describedImages = document.querySelectorAll('img[longdesc]');
for (i in describedImages) {
if (i.longdesc && !(validURL(i.longdesc)) { //assumes some URL validating function
var theData = encodeURIComponent(i.longdesc);
i.longdesc = "data:text/plain;charset=";
i.longdesc += document.charset;
i.longdesc += theData;
}
}</code></pre>
</section>
</section>
<section class="appendix" id="acknowledgements">
<h2><span class="secno">A. </span>Acknowledgements</h2>
<p>Thanks to the HTML Working group of the late 1990s for the original
specification of longdesc, to those who have implemented it in various
kinds of software, and to many many people involved with the
development of HTML5 (including but not limited to those who discussed
"ISSUE-30" in the HTML Working Group, the Protocols and Formats
Working Group, the W3C Advisory Board, and around countless dinner
tables, coffee breaks, and elsewhere) for the ideas, discussions and
contributions that led to the initial draft of this specification.
With the exception of Laura Carlson, who did far more very valuable
work than it took me to produce this specification, I haven't named
them: the list might be larger than the content of the specification.</p>
<p>For specific comments and suggestions that led to improvements over
successive drafts of this specification, thanks to the W3C's HTML
Accessibility Task Force, the W3C Internationalisation Working Group,
and to Jonathan Avila, Robin Berjon, James Craig, Steve Faulkner, John
Foliot, Geoff Freed, Richard Ishida, Anne van Kesteren, David
McDonald, Jay Munro, Devarshi Pant, Leif Halvard Silli, Mathew Turvey
and Boris Zbarsky. Any errors are despite, not as a result of, their
efforts.</p>
</section>
<section class="appendix" id="references">
<h2><span class="secno">B. </span>References</h2>
<section id="normative-references">
<h3><span class="secno">B.1 </span>Normative references</h3>
<dl class="bibliography">
<dt id="bib-HTML5">[HTML5]</dt>
<dd>Robin Berjon et. al., eds. <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5"><cite>HTML5.</cite></a>
W3C Working Draft. (Work in progress.) URL: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5">http://www.w3.org/TR/html5</a>
</dd>
<dt id="bib-RFC2119">[RFC2119]</dt>
<dd>S. Bradner. <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt"><cite>Key
words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels.</cite></a>
March 1997. Internet RFC 2119. URL: <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt">http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt</a></dd>
<dt id="bib-WEBIDL">[WEBIDL]</dt>
<dd>Cameron McCormack. <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-WebIDL-20110927/"><cite>Web
IDL.</cite></a> 27 September 2011. W3C Working Draft. (Work in
progress.) URL: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-WebIDL-20110927/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-WebIDL-20110927/</a></dd>
</dl>
</section>
<section id="informative-references">
<h3><span class="secno">B.2 </span>Informative references</h3>
<dl class="bibliography">
<dt id="bib-ATAGB3">[ATAGB3]</dt>
<dd>Jutta Treviranus et. al., eds. <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/ATAG20-TECHS/#principle_b3"><cite>Implementing
ATAG 2.0</cite></a>, Principle B3 "Authors must be supported
in improving the accessibility of existing content" October 2011.
W3C Working Draft. URL: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/ATAG20-TECHS/#principle_b3">http://www.w3.org/TR/ATAG20-TECHS/#principle_b3</a></dd>
<dt id="bib-WCAG2">[WCAG]</dt>
<dd>Ben Caldwell et. al., eds. <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/"><cite>Web